ATP and Erne shots in pickleball

An ATP, short for around the post, is a shot hit around the outside of the net post instead of over the net, and it’s legal: rule 13.C of the 2026 USA Pickleball rulebook says A ball may be returned around the outside of the net post. An Erne is a volley hit from outside the sideline, beside the kitchen, and it’s legal as long as you don’t touch the kitchen or its lines while you volley.

What is an ATP in pickleball?

ATP stands for around the post, and it has nothing to do with the men’s tennis tour. It’s a return that goes around the outside of the net post, so it never passes over the net at all.

You get the chance when a ball bounces on your side and keeps going wide, usually off a sharp crosscourt dink that pulls you past your sideline. On a court built to the rulebook, the posts stand 22 feet apart, inside to inside, beside a court 20 feet wide (rules 3.A.1 and 3.B.2), so with the net centered each post is about a foot outside the sideline. The ball usually has to get at least that wide before there’s a way around.

Is an ATP legal?

Yes. Rule 13.C is one sentence long: A ball may be returned around the outside of the net post. No rule makes a return go over the net or above any height. It has to land in their court, the same as any other shot (rules 8.B and 10.C.1).

The shot is legal, but an attempt is a fault against you if:

• it goes between the net and the post, which rule 13.D.1 spells out: When a player hits the ball between the net and the net post, it is a fault against the player;
• it goes under the net (rule 13.E.1);
• it hits the post before it bounces. The rulebook counts net posts as permanent objects, including connected wheels, arms, and legs, so a portable net’s feet count too (section 2, Permanent Object, and rule 10.C.4);
• the ball bounces on your side and touches the post before you get to it (rule 10.C.5);
• you cross to their side before you hit it. You can go as far off the court as you like, but until you’ve hit the ball you have to stay on your end of the net, whose plane runs above, below, and to both sides of the net (rules 5.B.4 and 13.I.1.a). After that, your follow-through may carry you across, as long as you don’t touch their court (rules 13.I.1 and 13.H).

The kitchen doesn’t matter for an ATP hit off the bounce, since it only restricts volleys (rule 11.A).

What is an Erne in pickleball?

An Erne is a volley hit from outside the sideline next to the kitchen, close to the net. You get there by walking around the corner of the kitchen or by jumping over it. Pickleball.com says the shot is named after Erne Perry, who famously used it in early competitive pickleball play. From out there you can volley a dink near the sideline right at the net, before it bounces, which can catch the other team off guard and end a dink rally outright.

James Ignatowich, a professional player, wrote in his newsletter in November 2024 that The threat of an Erne goes a long way in creating tension on the other side of the line, and that it funnels the ball to the middle for your partner to (hopefully) take control of the dink rally.

When is an Erne legal?

When neither you nor anything touching you is on the kitchen during the volley. Rule 11.A begins All volleys must be initiated outside of the non-volley zone. The kitchen runs the width of the court and stops at the sidelines, so the ground outside the sideline beside it isn’t part of it. The sideline is, for the 7 feet where it bounds the kitchen (rule 3.A.4.c), so a toe on that stretch of line while you volley is a fault.

Jumping over the corner is legal too, because the kitchen is the ground and not the air above it: rule 3.A.4.c says it does not extend above the playing surface. Take off from outside the kitchen, volley in the air over the corner, land outside the sideline, and you’ve done nothing wrong. Three things turn an Erne into a fault.

1. You take off from the kitchen, or volley before both feet are back outside it. Rule 11.A.3 says After contacting the non-volley zone, when a player volleys a ball before both feet contact the playing surface completely outside the non-volley zone, it is a fault against the player. You may run through the corner of the kitchen to get out there, but both feet have to be down outside it before you hit. The playing surface includes the area around the court (section 2), so two feet planted outside the sideline count.
2. Your momentum carries you onto the kitchen or its lines after the volley. That’s a fault even after the ball becomes dead (rule 11.A.2). Our kitchen rules guide explains when momentum ends, and what jumping can and can’t do.
3. You hit the ball before it has crossed the net. Out beside the post you’re level with the net, and it’s easy to reach for the ball early. It has to come over first: A ball must entirely cross to a player’s end of the net before the player hits the ball (rule 13.F).

How to hit an ATP

Before you chase one, look at how much room there is: the rulebook’s smallest playing surface leaves 5 feet beside each sideline of a centered 20-foot court (rules 3.A.1 and 3.A.3), and a fence or the next court can leave less. If there’s room:

1. Get there with a quick crossover step rather than shuffling sideways.
2. Let the ball get all the way past the post before you swing. The Kitchen Pickle gives the reason to wait: The lower the ball, the better your angle for an ATP.
3. Brush the outside of the ball with a slightly cupped wrist. You’re wrapping it around the net rather than driving through it.
4. Aim by where you are. Very close to the net, go for a sharp, short angle. Farther back, aim deeper, toward the back corner.

The footwork is the part to practice. Have a partner at their kitchen line feed you sharp crosscourt dinks that bounce near your sideline and carry wide, and follow each one off the court until you’re behind it, hitting it back over the net. Once getting there is easy, start taking the ones that get wide enough around the post.

How to hit an Erne

The Erne is a risky shot to wait for: a predictable dink or a pop-up near your sideline. Pickleball.com warns that Used too often or telegraphed, it becomes predictable and easy to counter with a straight-ahead dink. In a rec game the chance usually comes in a long dink rally in which the other team keeps sending the ball up your line.

The Dink’s August 2026 guide, drawing on coaching from Briones Pickleball Academy, sets it up with a dink of your own first: one that pushes the other player wide or deep into their corner, so they have to lift a low ball and have few angles to choose from. The reply that comes back up your line is the one you Erne. Move when their head drops to watch the ball; go earlier and they see you coming and dink somewhere else.

There are two ways out there. In the walk-around Erne you get both feet set outside the corner before you make contact. In the leaping one you start your lean when their head drops and push off as they make contact; for a right-hander on the left side, The Dink says to shift your weight onto the left foot and land with the right foot outside the court. Either way, the contact is a short, compact punch downward, not a full swing.

Learn the walk-around first. There’s no landing to get wrong, so it’s the easier one to keep legal: two feet set outside the sideline before contact, nothing on the line. A partner at their kitchen line can dink up your sideline while you practice going around the corner, setting your feet and punching the volley into the middle. Keep at it until you can do it without touching the line, then try the jump.

How to defend an ATP or an Erne

Against an ATP

The best defense is not hitting the dink that sets it up. ATP chances usually come from a crosscourt dink so sharp that it pulls the other player past the post. The Kitchen Pickle puts it as Don’t hit wide crosscourt shots that give your opponent a clear ATP chance. Stacie Townsend, writing for Inside the Den in 2022, gives the same advice: avoid hitting shots with sharp angles that give your opponents an easy opportunity to hit an ATP.

When one is coming anyway, step back from the kitchen line, especially on the side closest to your opponent, in The Kitchen Pickle’s words. Get low, with your paddle out in front in a backhand position, since an ATP comes in low. Townsend’s advice for the block is to angle your paddle back into the middle of the court, away from the player who hit it, who is still off the court.

Against an Erne

The tell is a player drifting toward their sideline beside the kitchen. Pickleball.com’s advice is The simplest defense is to vary your dinks. If you keep sending the same dink up their line, you’re feeding the shot, so once they’ve started to drift, dink crosscourt or into the middle instead.

Who calls it in a rec game?

Whether an ATP landed in is a line call for the team on whose end it landed (rule 8.A), and an Erne player’s foot in the kitchen is a kitchen fault that either team may call, as our kitchen rules guide explains. Anything else, such as an ATP that clipped the post or an Erne hit before the ball came over, you can mention after the rally, but The final decision on fault resolution belongs to the player that allegedly committed the fault (rule 9.B.4).

However it’s settled, it’s one rally on the scoreboard. Rally Trace keeps the score on your Apple Watch: tap the side that won, and it keeps the score, the server and where everyone stands, and calls the score out loud, so a scramble around the post doesn’t leave anyone wondering whose serve it is. Scoring is free, and so is the record it builds on your iPhone with every partner and opponent. Rally Trace Pro adds how you do on your serve and on theirs.

Get Rally Trace on the App Store; it’s free to download.